Curricular guidelines promote standardized approaches to coverage of essential knowledge and skills in undergraduate education. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Microbiology were developed in 2012. Continuous, rapid growth of knowledge in science and a dynamic, changing world necessitate updates…

This study critically examines the K-12 curriculum reform in the Philippines and suggests ways on how it can move forward. Specifically, three recent curriculum guides (i.e., science, mathematics, and English) were analysed to determine how they fit with the Education 4.0 milieu. Using a curriculum analysis matrix, the findings indicate that these…

In Chapter VIII of "Democracy and Education", Dewey objects to all three of the following propositions: (1) education serves predefined aims; (2) Education serves aims that are external to the process of education; and (3) Education serves aims that are imposed by authority. From the vantage point of policy-makers and authors of…

Previous papers in this issue of "JCS" have presented case studies of the state-based curriculum commissions that developed the "Illinois Learning Standards" of 1997 and Norway's "Laereplanverket 1997" ("L97") (1997). The studies were developed using as a framework a body of German research that sees…

This case study of the development of the "Illinois Learning Standards" of 1997 parallels a study of the development of the Norwegian compulsory school curriculum of 1997, "Laereplanverket 1997." The pair of case studies is designed to explore the administration of state-based curriculum-making and, in particular, the use of…

This paper introduces the questions and approaches of a five-nation cross-cultural study of state-based curriculum-making discussed in this issue of "JCS." The paper reviews the two decade-long interest of many nations in state-based curriculum-making and presents a framework for thinking about state-based curriculum-making as a tool of…

The paper identifies three tools that support the administrative instrument of a state-based curriculum commission: compartmentalization, licensing, and segmentation. These tools channel the state's curriculum-making towards forms of symbolic rather than regulatory action. The state curriculum becomes a framework for the ideological governance of…

This study aimed to examine and track the transformations in the mathematics intended curriculum during the latest reform in China from a neutral and objective perspective. Following the document analysis used in TIMSS (the Third International Mathematics and Science Study), the results indicated that a more modern system of mathematics knowledge…

This article details the journey Luke Rhine, a Program Specialist in Career and Technology Education at the Maryland State Department of Education, as he went about the difficult task of building consistency and establishing rigorous expectations for Technology education in Maryland. As a result, Maryland has developed a model for Technology…

When the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards project began, there really was nowhere else to go but up. The project was up against great odds--a dearth of funding, a history of incivility amongst the disciplines within social studies, a knack for ending up in media battles over what should be taught in…

In this article, literacy, which is conceived of as a set of cognitive skills, is juxtaposed with a sociocultural orientation that sees literacy as a set of social practices for the production of meaning. Cognitive, skills-based pedagogies treat literacy as universal, autonomous, and independent of context, whereas sociocultural literacy…

In this paper, the development of educational policy and curricula in relation to the development of a multicultural society in Iceland are critically discussed. Neither policy nor national curriculum guides refer particularly to multicultural society, multicultural or intercultural education. Implementations of equity principles are not clear in…

Recently, in Australia both the "National Review of School Music Education" and "The Australian Curriculum" identify the importance of technology in school music education. However, the understanding of music technology, as demonstrated by state and territory curricular guidelines, is limited with technology mostly recognised…

In 1989, the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) published "The Knowledge Base for the Beginner Teacher". More than a decade later, teachers, teacher educators and scholars from across the country came together to revise and refine the curriculum in teacher education. This article focuses on the recommendations of the…

The overall aim of this article is to analyze the relationships between the roles of assessment in pedagogy, the interactions between curriculum assessment and pedagogy, and the study of pupils' progression in learning. It is argued that well-grounded evidence of pupils' progressions in learning is crucial to the work of teachers, so that a method…